WHY Do Plugs Have HOLES? The ACTUAL Answer!

have you ever wondered why there's these little holes in all of the prongs on chords let's dig into it [Music] i've gotten this question by a whole bunch of people seems like a random thing to want to know but it kind of made me curious because i didn't know the answer so i've noticed a whole bunch of these little chords that i have holes in them right at the prong where they plug into a receptacle this one does this one does some of them don't every once in a while you run across some that don't so it's like well why why do they have them and why don't others have them so i went to google and i searched for some of the answers so it seemed like there were three different answers that came through repetitively by the way i have a relationship with a whole bunch of these manufacturers so i actually reached out and got an answer to this so make sure you stay tuned to the end and you'll actually hear the answer the first answer is that people think that they punch these holes out from the manufacturer to save material to cut down on cost now that i mean maybe that just kind of seems like a far stretch because why wouldn't they cut out even more material why is it this specific hole size pretty consistently across all plugs so i thought that's probably not the answer but who knows the second thing that i found with google was that people thought that oh it's for lockout tag out so lockout tag out for you non-electricians out there we have to lock out and tag out things so that people don't get electrocuted and come behind and turn something on when you're out working on something so to me that didn't seem like an answer but some people had suggested well maybe if before you use a cord you can attach a tag put a little zip tie through here zip tie a tag with instructions and it actually forces someone to read the tag and then cut the thing off which really they could just see the tag and cut the thing off i don't know so that didn't seem like a good answer either and then finally somebody said uh we think that it's for receptacles like inside of receptacles there must be like some kind of little bump thing that these things have to stick into but really if you stick something into a receptacle you don't ever feel like a snap in place or like you don't have difficulty pulling it out they usually slide out pretty uh pretty easily so that one seemed like the most plausible to me so i actually opened up a receptacle i broke it open and i pulled apart the little contacts on the inside to see if there was actually some kind of bump in there dustin versus receptacle fights [Music] holy [ __ ] [ __ ] [Music] [Music] uh i've taken plugs apart before uh the next one came apart really easy though and after pulling a couple of these apart i realized there is no said bump so i was like all right dude what's the deal so i called legrand legrand thank you so much for getting back to me on this but they actually asked their engineers and the engineers had this to say historically the receptacle female contacts had poor spring force and relied on a protrusion on the contact to engage the holes in the blades to keep the plug from falling out of the receptacle at that time most plugs supplied short-term low power loads as loads increased it was found greater gripping forces were needed to prevent overheating so this is probably an issue that you're going to see with a lot older receptacles way back in the day so the reason they manufacture them still this way is because when there are older receptacles that are installed somewhere you still want to make sure equipment can plug into them safely and so this older equipment if it does have these little bumps on the inside will at least hold these plugs in when you plug them in a little bit better so that is the answer it's just that most if not all receptacles that are made nowadays don't have that problem they have stronger contacts on the inside so they don't need that anymore so that's your answer now if you're curious what's on the inside of a receptacle i actually have a video right here you should check this video out pretty cool i crack one open see how everything works on the inside and if you're curious to see how a three-way switch works on the inside i have this video here where i pull the thing open and show how a three-way contact works love you crazy people and i'll see you in the next one

Channel: Electrician U

Views: 461,174

Keywords: electrician, electrical, electricity, dustin stelzer, electrician vlog, construction, commercial, residential, electrical vlog, electrical courses, electrician courses, electrical class, electrician class, electrician school, electricial, electrical contractor, national electrical code, why plugs have holes, actual answers, pull the plug cover, legrand legacy, electric hole punch, power issues, electrical podcast, city and guilds 8202, city and guilds, ibew, ibew electrician

Id: PTTvuN8osPU

Length: 4min 40sec (280 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 06 2022